Stoneware Ink Bottle c. 1940

Sydney Roberts made this watercolor drawing of a Stoneware Ink Bottle, and it's got me thinking about the hidden lives of everyday objects. There’s something really lovely about the bottle's form: the way the neck tapers to a smaller circle. I wonder what it was like for Roberts to sit with this bottle, to really look at it, and then try to capture it. There is a beautiful stillness in the piece that speaks to a concentrated period of looking and painting. I think of her studio, the light, her thoughts. The color palette is earthy and muted, giving the bottle a sense of solidity and age. It reminds me of other artists who find beauty in the mundane, like Giorgio Morandi and his still lifes. It makes you wonder what stories this bottle could tell. We are all in conversation with one another, even across time.